Literary pet peeves...

[Sateema Lunasi]

My literary peeve is this;

Famous books considered great for no valid reason. Doesn't a book have to be either informative or entertaining, or both? Why are some books touted as "classics" and wonderful, like Lady Chatterly's Lover. That book will put a bottle of Rhitlin to sleep. Or anything written by jane Austin. Do people really enjoy that? I'd rather watch gnats hump.

My other peeve is books and authors being analyzed to death in schools. Steinbeck once wrote a letter to a New York school stating that NOTHING he has EVER written (including The Pearl and Grapes of Wrath) has ANY symbolism in it. Nothing. It is exactly what it says, nothing more. He told the teacher to stop forcing bullshit symbolism down kids throats in his name. I always found that hilarious. In form school (high school) I used that letter to get out of reading The Pearl three times.

 

[darrenfate]

Famous books considered great for no valid reason ...

Well here I must disagree with such a broad statement. I did enjoy your story about Steinbeck, though. It was great. Although if I was your teacher you still would have had to read The Pearl. You must have been a precocious student! I'm sure that there are many so called "classics" that are not. Animal Farm comes to mind for me ...

I have had exactly the opposite experience with classics. I've been on a classic reading mission the last few years. I found that the Three Musketeers was actually a four volume out of print set. I tracked them down and loved them all! So much better than the abridged versions. Frankenstein, Dracula, the Sun Also Rises, A Moveable Feast, all those "classics" are excellent. So if I were to pick a blanket statement I'd say books are classics for a reason and fit reads.

 

[TheEarl]

Jon, ellipses are traditionally used to show show an incomplete thought or speech like you showed there. But they can also be used (in England at least) to show pauses in thought or speech. Lots of authors don't think that's grammatically correct, but AFAIK it's correct English to use them in that way.

The Earl

 

[Velius]

Jon, ellipses are traditionally used to show show an incomplete thought or speech like you showed there. But they can also be used (in England at least) to show pauses in thought or speech. Lots of authors don't think that's grammatically correct, but AFAIK it's correct English to use them in that way.

The Earl

I am not sure whether it is "correct", but IMO it is plausible to use it that way. I guess this could be attributed to the fact that it also visually implies a pause (because of the physical length of the "...").

 

[80niner]

Pet peave

Writers pursuing youth while claiming they see maturity

I like mature stories. I enjoy writing about older women getting fucked and loving it. It bugs me when writers cast their mature women so young. I don’t like writers presuming to write mature stories starting out, “She was forty-five but she looked thirty.” Where is the maturity? Where are the aging lines? Where are the sagging breasts and the enlarged ass that feels softer when you squeeze? If you are going to fuck an older woman it should be because she is older and looks mature.

What makes a man attracted to mature women?

I want a woman who takes care of herself but I want to admire the age lines at the eyes, the no longer firmness of her boobs, a few gray hairs in her parsley patch and I don’t care if her hair is gray and she wears bifocals.
Now I have to admit I did not feel that way when I was young.. if confronted I ,stupidly, would have ran if an older woman had opened her robe and propositioned me. Young boys are stupid and as old men they write what they wish had happened back and get a good hard-on out of their dreams.
80niner

 

[TheEarl]

Agreed. Although mature women aren't my thing, I hate writers who try and go half-way. "She had just turned 18, but looked 15", step-father incest stories, etc. If you're going to write about something, have the bollocks to write about it rather than pussyfoot around the issue.

There's my rant done for the day.

The Earl

 

[karmadog]

re: Sateema

I have to agree with you about "great" books, but you can't know if a book speaks to you or not from one reading. I hated many of the books I was forced to read in High School and college, but later, when I read them for fun I loved them.

Reading books for symbolism is important whether the author intended it to be there or not. At its best, the communication between an author and a reader borders on telepathy. The communication is direct from one mind to another. At the risk of sounding like a Jungian, it doesn't always happen that the writer will be aware of the symbolism he used. On top of that, the reading for symbolism teaches a student to read on more than one level. A crucial life lesson to not take everything at face value.

Another pet peeve: Pedantic fuckers who blather about literary symbolism.

 

[Quasimodem]

Why are some books touted as "classics" and wonderful, like Lady Chatterly's Lover. That book will put a bottle of Rhitlin to sleep. Or anything written by jane Austin. Do people really enjoy that? I'd rather watch gnats hump.

"Lady Chatterly's Lover" is probably more noted for its publishing history than for actual content.

Jane Austen? Well count me as one. Better count me for two, I reread.

Everybody to their own taste, but my spectacles aren't good enough for the finer points of gnat humping.



Quasi.

 

[darkness_d]

typos

Someone mentioned typos in books. Books typos are a mere misdemeanor compared to the felonious lack of editing in theatrical scripts.

I direct plays and pay large royalty fees to publishing houses for performance rights to their plays. What do I receive? Essentially we get the original production's stage manager's script--with all the useful notes removed and every single mistake left intact.

FREQUENT ERRORS:
flip-flopping of character tags above lines

character's names not being in the tags in some scenes because they wrote in the name of the actor playing the role instead

Dialogue that makes so little sense that you know it was corrected by the director and actors yet still appears in the script

corrections scribbled in pencil and then photocopied for the final draft


Along with the poorly bound copies of these horribly edited scripts comes reminders that the producer is strictly forbidden to alter the script IN ANY WAY. If we had adhered strictly to that rule, one character in <i>Oliver!</i> would have been referred to by three different names in the same scene, and that character would have referred to another character by a different name than she was referred to at other places in the script, and key exposition points would have been rendered indecipherable. I respect the author's right to have the play performed "as intended," but I know the author never permitted his show to be perfromed in the manner the publishing house's script appears.

Done now. Don't feel all that much better, though.

---darkness_d---

 

[Quint]

::cracks knuckles::

Here we go:

In my junior AP English class, there were two groups of people: those who enjoyed "Pride and Prejudice," and those who enjoyed "Crime and Punishment." I was of the latter. Several of the classics we read in there were exercises in futility. Why did we need to read "Moby Dick"? I couldn't stand it. Even worse was Melville's "Billy Budd". Why, oh why, "Tess of the d'Urbervilles"?! Hardy is a chauvenistic moron with a penchant for melodrama beyond even what I am capable of conjuring. I don't enjoy Dickens. I barely tolerated the Bronte sisters. I get to college, expecting there to be a difference. Oh, there is. Now we talk about the homoerotic suggestions in Shakespeare, rather than the obvious themes of betrayal and false ambition. Or, even better, the homoeroticism of Jesus.

I dislike overanalysis for lack of anything better to do. I suppose literary analysis is like archaeology; there is only a limited amount of stuff to dig up before you have to start planting stuff. o)

WhisperSecret put it marvelously with her point about apathy, which sadly I didn't remember to quote. Care about the products of your mind as much as you care about that mind.

Misuse of words: before college got out, a friend of mine was trying very hard to convince everyone that "delicious" can NEVER be applied to anything except for taste and smell. We had a fun time with that one.

Unerotic words: to me, dick, snatch, twat, pecker, prick, box, bush, jism, squirt, tits, boobies, and many that I'm undoubtedly forgetting.

 

[Whispersecret]

I liked Pride and Prejudice, but I only read it a couple of years ago. I wonder if I had read it in college if I would have enjoyed it.

I think the problem with reading the classics is that the written language and the construction and accepted style of novels has changed so drastically. I'm currently reading "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe," to my kids, and I'm finding there are these HUGE monotonous passages of narration. And that sucker was only written fifty years ago. So when you read something that's one hundred or more years old, I think to truly appreciate it you have to be familiar with the conventions of the times and remember that society, in my opinion, might have been much more intellectual and in-depth, than we are.

I think that TV and radio have trained us to want and expect immediate gratification, whether that be in regard to fast food, or the description of the setting in a novel. We're a fast society and we, generally, seem to want our literature to move along quickly too.

Then again, I could be way off base. I haven't taken a lit course since high school.

 

[KillerMuffin]

Agreed. Although mature women aren't my thing, I hate writers who try and go half-way. "She had just turned 18, but looked 15", step-father incest stories, etc. If you're going to write about something, have the bollocks to write about it rather than pussyfoot around the issue.

There's my rant done for the day.

The Earl

They have to pussyfoot around it here. No one under 18 having sex at Literotica Though the occasional story slips by, they're not supposed to be there.

Of course, some are so ridiculously obvious, like an 18 year old in a training bra. Shya, that happens.

 

[SexyChele]

On the topic of classics -

In the book club I belong to we just finished reading "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Now, I'm gonna really date myself, but this was required reading when I was in Jr. High School. I loved the book then because I placed myself as the female version of Huck Finn. Floating down the Mississippi River, no problems, no responsibilities. I know of some kids in my class who hated having to read that book.

When I read it this time, I was looking forward to that pure escapism again. But what I found was something better. I found that Mark Twain was truly a genius at writing. Something I never appreciated at 13. His description of a summer thunderstorm at the beginning of chapter 9 is outstanding!

I think exposing kids to literature during school is good - I don't think kids read enough. The problem is, many do not learn to appreciate what they are reading until they are much older.

 

[Dragonette]

A new word maybe?

'shuttered'

I have seen this in a few stories now, it's usually used when a male is having an orgasm.

But I don't see it in any dictionary.

It's a fairly good 'new' word, but it always catches my eye.

Anyone else seen or use this word?



Published books with typos annoy me!

I know nothing is perfect, but when they acknowledge so and so for their proofreading, I get 'peeved.'

I get books from the library, but I buy and collect the ones I really like, I am only missing one of David Eddings, so annoying, I can't seem to find it anywhere!

Yes, I adore fantasy!

 

[Velius]

"Shuttered" seems valid enough to me, as it is just the past tense of "shutter". Books with typos or other mistakes bug the hell out of me (I was reading the Icewind Dale trilogy by R.A. Salvatore (I didn't like the books all that much, as the main character is too goody goody) and they spelt the word "mithril" with an a "mithral", which was technically correct for the book, as WotC (Wizards of the Coast) had to change it to avoid copyright infringement. "Mithril" just seems so much more elegant than "mithral" I can't stand the latter spelling.). In one book I was reading, there were some errors in the form of missing periods!

Dragonette, what book are you looking for?

 

[Axeltheswede]

Pet Peeve

They have to be substituting "shutter" for "shudder", don't they?

I guess you could say a person "shuttered" a house by applying shutters on the windows. Not too elegant.

Since shudder means to shake violently, that must be the intention. Or, are you pulling our collective legs from the start on this?

 

[damppanties]

Re: A new word maybe?

'shuttered'

I have seen this in a few stories now, it's usually used when a male is having an orgasm.

But I don't see it in any dictionary.

It's a fairly good 'new' word, but it always catches my eye.

Anyone else seen or use this word?

How about - "He shuttered his eyes so she could not see the lust he wanted to hide."

Is that valid?

-DP.

 

[SexyChele]

Re: A new word maybe?

'shuttered'

I have seen this in a few stories now, it's usually used when a male is having an orgasm.

But I don't see it in any dictionary.

It's a fairly good 'new' word, but it always catches my eye.

Anyone else seen or use this word?

Well, shuttered would simply be the past tense of shutter. Hmm - according to my Oxfor American dictionary, shutter means:

n. 1. person or thing that shuts. 2a. moveable, often louvered, cover for a window. b. structure of slats on rollers used for the same purpose. 3. device that exposes the film in a camera.

Now, unless a man can manage to close himself while orgasming, I do believe the writer would mean to shudder. The meaning of which is:

v. 1. shiver, esp. convulsively, from fear, cold, repugnance, etc. 2. feel strong repugnance. n. act or instance of shuddering.


It really doesn't sound like they would mean "shudder" either, as it seems to dwell on "repugnance"!

Interesting, the things you learn when you read a dictionary!

 

[Quasimodem]

Shutters in Orgasm.

This occurs in the nanosecond following orgasm. The shields over male emotions slide back into place, preparatory to him pulling out. He is already anticipating his trip to the bathroom for a pee, and then to the kitchen for a beer.

Don't look for this word in dictionaries. English is a growing language.

Then, again, I may have confused this definition with something I read in my Nikon Handbook.

 

[Dragonette]

Chuckles

Yes, that's what I meant!

I looked it up as well, and SexyChele is correct!

Good try Quasimodem, very good!

I also guessed they meant shuddered, but my friend always used it, and the d's and t's are not next to each other on the keyboard so it's not a typo, he never explained even when I asked, but he changed it.
But I have seen it in other stories by other authors, it seems to be an Americanism, a new word.

Just like nanosecond. That came from Star Trek, like other new words.

Axeltheswede, pulling your collective legs?
Chuckles now that brings strange images to mind, how many do you have!
No, I have seen it many times now in many different stories!

damppanties, in that sense, yes.

Velius, this one, but I usually just look in second hand bookstores now as I am on a strict budget at the moment, and I don't have many stores around me.
When I was working and could afford a new book, I didn't have time to shop!
Viscious circle.

David Eddings The Tamuli 1 Domes of Fire

I just read a series and ' was used as quotes instead of "
That was unusual.

And yes, I have read books referring to Mithril and Mithral, but it would be their choice wouldn't it?

There is a thread in here that talks about kobalds as viscious creatures, but Tasseltoff Burrfoot isn't mean, just annoying!
Not sure if I spelt it right
Weis & Hickman The War of Souls 1 Dragons of a Fallen Sun

I think that's the series, doh, might have gotten it confused, blame my flu, I do!
Plus that was about 40 books ago, and a library book.
My memory is not as good as it used to be, sighs dramatically.

Have you read Katherine Kerr's Deverry series and Robert Jordans Wheel of Time?